The Royal Society of Medicine has it’s fifth annual medical app conference on April 7th – numbers booked have already well exceeded last year’s sellout so they are expecting to fill this year’s much larger conference venue. The focus this year is on the many legislative, regulatory and voluntary measures being introduced that will impact medical apps – there’s still room for old favourites though, such as Richard Brady’s always-topical Bad Apps slot.

(There is also a call for abstracts in poster form as part of the Future of Medicine conference programme. Abstracts are welcome from all professionals working in healthcare and related fields with younger members of the community particularly encouraged to submit their work. Those submitting accepted abstracts will have reduced price entry to the event. Abstracts should be submitted to telemedicine@rsm.ac.uk – the deadline is 29th March.)

The Young Engineering Professionals conference organised by BSI and the Institution of Engineering & Technology among others is on 28th April, and at which this editor is speaking (on smart health). Entrance is free.

Oxfordshire-based Medelinked has launched a programme to enable partners to write medical apps that use their platform to deliver EHR interoperability. The article also includes a good summary of medical app stats from IMS.

This editor was recently invited to give a presentation on the nearly-finalised General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at a highly prestigious digital marketing conference. When asked how many people in the 200+ audience had heard of it previously, some five people put their hands up, which is a little frightening given the huge penalties for non-compliance and the sweeping changes coming in. Doubtless readers of this blog will be much savvier as the impacts on medical apps, and other digital health products, will be very significant, including for companies doing business in the EU although not EU resident. What is perhaps even more frightening though is how facial recognition software is now apparently actively used in commercial premises for all sorts of reasons, worldwide. Somehow it seems it escapes current regulation.

And one late addition – a smart self-propelled baby stroller controlled by a smartphone app, coming shortly, that keeps a constant distance in front of you as you run! Features include wireless speakers, a bottle warmer, three retractable canopies, a rocker and a temperature-controlled bassinet, as well as wheels that will only unlock for authorised users. (No it’s not yet the 1st April.)

Hat tip to Prof Mike Short & Dr Nicholas Robinson for pointers to some of the above.

Our definitions

Telehealth and Telecare Aware posts pointers to a broad range of news items. Authors of those items often use terms 'telecare' and telehealth' in inventive and idiosyncratic ways. Telecare Aware's editors can generally live with that variation. However, when we use these terms we usually mean:

• Telecare: from simple personal alarms (AKA pendant/panic/medical/social alarms, PERS, and so on) through to smart homes that focus on alerts for risk including, for example: falls; smoke; changes in daily activity patterns and 'wandering'. Telecare may also be used to confirm that someone is safe and to prompt them to take medication. The alert generates an appropriate response to the situation allowing someone to live more independently and confidently in their own home for longer.

• Telehealth: as in remote vital signs monitoring. Vital signs of patients with long term conditions are measured daily by devices at home and the data sent to a monitoring centre for response by a nurse or doctor if they fall outside predetermined norms. Telehealth has been shown to replace routine trips for check-ups; to speed interventions when health deteriorates, and to reduce stress by educating patients about their condition.

Telecare Aware's editors concentrate on what we perceive to be significant events and technological and other developments in telecare and telehealth. We make no apology for being independent and opinionated or for trying to be interesting rather than comprehensive.